(R)-GABOB is a compound of tremendous pharmacological importance because of its biological function as a neuromodulator in the mammalian central nervous system. (Otsuka, M.; Obata, K.; Miyata, Y.; Yaneka, Y. J. Neurochem 1971, 18, 287; Otsuka, M.; Obata, K.; Miyata, Y. Advances in Biochemical Psychopharamacology Raven: New York, 1972, Vol 6, pp 61. ) It is known to function as an agonist of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and has been found to be a remarkable antiepileptic and hypotensive drug (Brehm, L.; Jacobsen, P.; Johansen, J. S.; Krogsgaard-Larsen, P. J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans I 1983, 1459). It has also been demonstrated to be effective in managing a variety of clinical conditions including schizophrenia and other character based illnesses (Chapoy, P. R.; Angelini, C.; Brown, W. J.; Stiff, J. E.; Shug, A. L.; Cederbaum, S. D.; N. Engl. J. Med. 1980, 303, 1389; Takano, S.; Yanase, M.; Sekiguchi, Y.; Ogasawara, K. Tetrahedron Lett. 1987, 28, 1783), epilepsy and other illnesses that result in severe convulsions. Its use for the correction of some clinical condition observed in children has also been explored. Moreover (R)-GABOB is a precursor for (R)-carnitine a vitamin like substance and plays an important role in converting stored body fat into energy. Its primary physiological function is to transport long chain fatty acids through the mitochondrial membrane into the cellular compartments for oxidation where these fats can be converted into energy (Fritz, I. B.; Kaplan, E.; Yu, K. T. N. Am. J. Physiol. 1962, 202, 117; Bremer, J. Physiol. Rev. 1983, 63, 1420; Brown, W. J.; Stiff, J. E.; Shug, A. L.; Cederbaum S. D.; N. Engl. J. Med. 1980, 303, 1389; McGarry, J. D.; Foster, D. W. Ann. Rev. Biochem. 1980, 49, 395) and is considered as a good antiobesity drug. The R-form of GABOB is shown to have greater biological activity than its S-enantiomer (Kurano; Masayasu; Miyaruoto; Shigetoshi; Shigeoka; Satoshi; Mori; Akitane. Japanese Patent 1976; Chem. Abstr. 1977, 86, 89207u; Ostsuka, M.; Obata, K.; Miyata; Y.; Yaneka, Y. J. Neurochem. 1971, 18, 287; Otsuka, M.; Miyata, Y. Advances in Biochemical Pysopharmacology, Raven: New York, 1972, Vol 6, pp 61; Kurono, M.; Miyamoto, S.; Shigeoka, S.; Mori, A. Japan, Kokai 76,100,026; Chem. Abstr. 1977, 86, 89207u).

In spite of the simple structure of GABOB a number of methods for their enantioselective preparation are described in the literature (Wang, G.; Hollingsworth, R. I. Tetrahedron: Asymmetry 1999, 10, 1895 and references cited therein). They have been prepared by optical resolution, asymmetric synthesis from natural products, catalytic asymmetrical synthesis and by employing enzymes in the key enantioselective step. Earlier approaches reported in the literature have either long reaction sequences thereby reducing the overall yield or have employed chiral starting material not in the chiral pool or have obtained the target compounds in low enantioselectivity. In view of the high biological importance associated with these compounds a more facile, efficient and cost effective approach has been investigated.
GABOB has four-carbon chain in its basic structural skeleton and retrosynthetic strategy reveals that enantiomerically pure 3-hydroxy-4-trityloxybutanenitrile or 3-acetyloxy-4-trityloxybutanenitrile can be excellent chiral building block for the synthesis of target molecule.